She's Gone

Okay - so after 17 days Erin had to go back to Kodiak. And she took Mom with her. We had a wonderful visit with her - Lots and lots of fun. Celebrating Mom's birthday with the Red Hat gals and Erin was a lot of fun. I think Mom will remember it as a happy birthday. So They left on the 12th, and on the 14th I had foot surgery to fuse the three tarsal/metatarsals in m right foot and to straighten my second hammer toe. Was in the hospital Wed and Thursday I came home about noon or so. I can't remember exactly when. I just tried to relax and rest my foot the rest of the day. I woke up in the morning of Friday to go to the potty and when I came back to bed, I couldn't breath. Dad got up for some reason, and after a short struggle, I managed to get it settled down and could sleep in my chair after that. Friday night I slept in my chair. Saturday in the afternoon I had another episode that didn't want to end. We decided I needed to go to the hospital after I called Dr Fanning to see what he thought. I had trouble just getting to the car. Had to stop and try to catch my breath each step through the garage. The breathing finally settled down in the car after about 5 minutes. We went to St Francis, and they processed me pretty quickly when they got me going. I guess they were treating my illness with more seriousness than I was. I didn't think I really had anything. After a couple of screening tests they tell me I probably have Congestive Heart Failure. Kind of a blow to a 61 year old woman. They admitted me into the hospital, the coronary floor, and did a bunch more tests. They were i.v.ing lasix into me to get rid of the excess fluid in my lungs. I haven't had trouble breathing since then. My blood pressure was through the roof a couple of times. They put me on strick I & O and a fall risk, I think. Monday morning I went into the cath lab and they ended up putting in one stent into the right coronary artery. He said the rest of my veins looked okay and my heart looked good. Then I had to go to Coronary Intensive Care Unit. Pretty nice. Two nurses to take care of me, a private room and a door that closed and I had QUIET to sleep in! They finally found a regular room for me at 9 p.m. on Tuesday so I had to go back to the noisy floor with a roommate. Got along fine, and was released to go home about 1 p.m. I'm glad to be home and ALIVE. And except for a ton of new meds, in pretty much the condition I have always been in, only better. God was definitely involved in this whole thing. I could have had a heart attack, I could have had a LOT more blockage, I could have ended up with diabetes on top of all that other crap, but I have a new stent, clear lungs and only had Pulmonary edemna - NOT CHF. Thank God. Now the blockage that is there is dealt with, I can improve my health with diet and exercise, and I will have many many more years of good life. God is SOOO GOOD!!!